


Tell Me About the Big Bang

by ArloWrites



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics), Harley Quinn (Comics), Red Robin (Comics), Robin (Comics)
Genre: Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Gen, Harley Quinn is also Bi, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Psychological Warfare, Tim Drake is Bi, Tim Drake is Red Robin, Tim Drake-centric, discussion of abuse, discussion of sexuality, implied Joker/Harley Quinn - Freeform, implied past Harley Quinn/Poison Ivy, implied past Tim Drake/Stephanie Brown - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-21
Updated: 2019-03-21
Packaged: 2019-11-27 09:10:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18192593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArloWrites/pseuds/ArloWrites
Summary: “Harley, you don’t need to do this.”She laughs- her hyena Joker laugh. “That’s the hero script you’re going with? I thought you were supposed to be the cunning one, Mr. Red Robin. Zero points for originality.”There is a Batman-sanctioned script, actually, for dealing with unhinged but redeemable villains. Like so many Bat-rules these days, Tim disregards it.or, Red Robin and Harley Quinn's discussion on a rooftop, with only bombs between them.





	Tell Me About the Big Bang

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic and I do not have a Beta reader, so I probably have mistakes that are all my own fault. This fic does allude to homophobia/biphobia and talks about both domestic and familial abuse. Parts of it might sound overly critical of some members of the Batfam- which I do not agree with. More notes on that at the bottom.  
> Title is from "I Sing The Body Electric, Especially When My Power’s Out" by Andrea Gibson.

Tim had long ago accepted that there was no reasoning with the Joker. It was as futile as reasoning with a hurricane- or more so, even, because natural disasters are not driven by sadism.

But that same obstinacy did not extend to Harley.

Sure, when she was with the Joker, she matched his cruelty blow-for-blow, flittering around him with her own brand of absurd malice. Sometimes, in her attempt to mold herself into the perfect shape for him, she even became worse. Dr. Harleen Quinzel, after all, knew the human psyche, so, Harley Quinn’s tortures were the haunting torments- the ones that wriggled underneath the mind and ate at you from behind.

But when she was away from him… she mellowed. Still a villain, but one that lived and breathed and cried and laughed in human tones. Her mythos and her diamond-shaped makeup both washed away- leaving someone a little more understandable.

_And hopefully_ , Tim thought, _a little more understanding_.

“Harley, you don’t need to do this.”

She laughs- her hyena Joker laugh. “ _That’s_ the hero script you’re going with? I thought you were supposed to be the cunning one, Mr. Red Robin. Zero points for originality.”

There is a Batman-sanctioned script, actually, for dealing with unhinged but redeemable villains. Like so many Bat-rules these days, Tim disregards it.

Deliberately casual, he shrugs. “Yeah, I guess. But as an opening gambit, it works fine. We’re talking, aren’t we?”

Talking and _not_ detonating a bomb that will blow up the command center at Arkham. But he doesn’t mention that part yet, and neither does she.

She pouts. “Well I suppose we are, pumpkin. You might wanna work on your pick-up lines, though. A girl’s gonna think that you’re a buzzkill if you just walk around sayin’ “stop” all the time. How do you keep any girlfriends with lines like that?”

_Point to Harley._ Tim carefully doesn’t think of blonde hair and blood.

“With my raw wit and hot bod,” he deadpans. Over her resulting bark of laughter, he says, “I don’t know actually. What do you look for in a man?”

Tension ramps up again. Harley’s frame stills for a moment, and Tim’s muscles clench with anticipation in response.

“Oh, you know. A providing man who keeps things real interesting,” She puts a hand to her face like she’s thinking about it, “Handsome face with pretty eyes. Lets me call ‘em all the pet names I please. A sense of humor is a _must_.”

“Surely, that’s not too hard to find?”

“Oh, you’d be surprised. There might be a lot of fish in the sea, but this is the Gotham Harbor- and I don’t want none of those fish. They don’t got that emotional intelligence that a girl needs,” her nose wrinkles, “and besides, most of ‘em smell.”

“Well,” Tim says, “why don’t you go for someone… a bit more natural then? Some fresh air in a Gotham greenhouse might do you some good.”

It’s not the most subtle dig, but it doesn’t need to be. Harley freezes again, but this time, her face briefly contorts into something like… guilt? Tim feels a stab of vindictive satisfaction. Ex-girlfriends are a sore spot for both of them.

When Harley laughs, it comes out a beat too late and a touch too loud. “Oh, you _are_ the smart one, then?”

“I like to think so.”

“How’d you know?”

_A combination of childhood stalking, reading expressions that adults want to hide, security footage, pattern- recognition software, and_ … “Intuition. I suspected. You just confirmed it.”

Harley’s off-balance now. She looks almost scared. Her pale skin pales further, and under the combination of industrial light and wispy moonlight, she looks washed out. This was not the response that Tim was expecting. He tracks back through the conversation to try to find where the fear might be coming from…

Oh.

“I won’t tell anyone that… I mean, it’s not a… this isn’t why I’m… uh…” Harley still looks spooked. And Tim wants to throw her off, he does, but this isn’t something that should _ever_ be held as leverage. “I mean… I like fish and plants… too?” and he immediately cringes. He’ll be thinking about those words for years with embarrassment. God, you’d think he was coming out as bi for the first time.

But Harley gets it and her laugh is relieved, “Is that what the kids are calling it these days?”

“When they’re ready to, yeah.” A shared glance and shared acknowledgement- they might be on opposite sides, but _this_ will not be shared outside of this conversation.

And there’s a rapport that Tim wasn’t necessarily expecting. But he’ll take what he can get.

“Harley, why do you want to break the Joker out?”

She doesn’t startle this time- she’s been ready for _this_ line of questioning through the entire conversation. With a theatrical swoon, Harley says, “To be with my Mr. J again. To hear his laugh and see his eyes and touch his chest and taste-”

“Ok, ok,” Tim interrupts.

She giggles. “It’s also been just _too_ long. I don’t want him to start feeling… impatient with me.”

“But… Harley. He’s imprisoned right now. There are new security measures to keep him that way. The only way he’s getting out is if you help him out. If you don’t, then you don’t have to fear his… impatience. Why do you keep going back to him? You can visit people like Ivy-”

_That’s_ the trigger. All at once, her affectations crash down and she snarls like an animal forced into a corner- wild eyes and flashing teeth and cruel voice, “ _I’m_ not forced to do anything. Don’t act like I’m the only battered wife in this scenario, _Robin_.” A high, fake laugh, “Oh, but you’re not Robin anymore, are you?”

Tim has a bad feeling about this. _The only battered wife?_ “I’m not saying that-”

“No, you’re not,” she says over him, “you’re not Robin anymore- if you ever really were, of course.”

“I was Robin for years,” Tim says, but-

“Oh yeah, between the dead bird and the True Son,” - _and holy fuck this is bad, how does she know those titles-_ “and _I’ve_ heard some interesting rumors about that,” She’s pacing now, and Tim has to adjust his stance to keep her in his center-focus- “ _I_ heard that both of them tried to kill you. I heard that both of them almost succeeded.”

She stops. Looks him dead in the eye and he should really say something now, but the words have abandoned him.

“I heard that Daddy-Bats did _nothing_ to stop them.”

There’s the dull sound of blood rushing through his ears. “He would’ve, but he was gone. And I have a better relationship with both of them now. It’s not like that. I’m not-”

“-like me?” Harley grins. “You mean that you _don’t_ love your family and view your time together as a privilege and change yourself to match their expectations and deal with their rages and murder attempts and neglect and apathy because they are the only ones who know your history and they are the only ones who have ever shown you the highs before, so you can deal with the lows _together_?”

Tim opens his mouth to respond but she laughs again. “Thank fuck I’m at least not as pathetic about it as you are. Mr. J might only keep me around because he needs me to break him out of jail, but at least he _needs_ me. I don’t have to slink around like a beaten mutt for scraps of affection from the family table.”

Tim’s playing catch-up so much right now. He’s not- his family isn’t- ~~~~

 “That’s because my family is not abusive! But the Joker is! Harley, I don’t believe in good and evil but he is a truly abhorrent person.” Oops. Tim shouldn’t have gone that far. But what is he supposed to do? Just sit here and listen to Harley’s-- _accusations_?

“Mirror-image perception- Batman has hurt me more than the Joker ever has, just like every law-man that talks a lot of game and perpetrates the exact same shit!” Harley yells back.

Tim can see that this conversation is getting out of hand. He had thought—well, he had thought that he could do some good tonight, get Harley to leave out of her own volition, but that’s quickly turning out to be just another miscalculation on his part.

He needs to get her away from the explosives.

“But Batman doesn’t hurt people like the Joker does,” He yells as he discretely throws a batarang at the floor between Harley’s legs. She doesn’t notice. He starts pacing to the right a little, and she mirrors him by going to the left.

“Because the Joker hurts with purpose,” she screams back, “he hurts people for his art, for his critique. Batman hurts people to hold the world in stasis- to maintain the _stupid-fucking-status-quo_!”

And this is when Tim strikes. He throws another batarang at Harley’s hand, and by the time she yelps and drops the other part to the detonator, he’s already at the central frame and slicing through Cord I, Cord II, not Cord III, Cord IV-

He moves out of the way before Harley can stab him with his own batarang, but not fast enough. The edges skin Tim’s left side to his stomach as he turns around and blocks a punch to his face.

But the bomb is behind Tim now. And Harley isn’t good enough at hand-to-hand combat to get around him. They both know it.

Harley snarls again, but backs off. Tim knows that he should follow- try to cuff her and make sure that she doesn’t just come back another night- but he doesn’t.

They maintain eye-contact until Harley is a few yards away, then she laughs again, high and cruel. “Nice talking to ya, _Robin_.” Then she turns around and sprints off, leaving Tim alone with the disabled bombs and the moonlight.

He looks up at the sky. Murky, with the omnipresent smog of Gotham’s industry.

He needs to call in Harley’s location, he knows, and the fact that she has hints of Damien’s identity- and maybe all of them. At the very least, he needs to tell the Bats that they must keep a closer watch on Arkham for the next few days. But he can’t bring himself to turn on his comms yet. No matter how wrong Harley is, her words still… haunt him. Echo through his mind.

_“Daddy-Bats did nothing to stop them.”_

Tim knows that’s unfair. Half of the… murder attempts were times when Bruce was dead. That couldn’t count against him- anymore than Tim already harbored a little seed of resentment for being left alone.

And Tim genuinely had a better relationship with his siblings these days. Dick and Damien might be their own unit, but Dick was apologetic and Damien was a little kid- he, more than anyone, deserved understanding. Tim talks to Jason occasionally, when their paths cross on patrol. Cass and he share Skype nights every- few weeks? few months? it has been a while… But the new kid! Duke. He’s just as sarcastic as the rest of them, but he’s loyal and Tim’s sure that if he reached out, Duke would reciprocate… even if only out of obligation.

He sits down and doesn’t think of Kon or Bart or Mom or Dad. He doesn’t even think of B, who has always existed in some nebulous space between Batman and Bruce to Tim.

He leans back and his hand hits a loose brick that scrapes across the cement ground. Tim lets out a little laugh that sounds like something punctured.

Tim does not think about Stephanie.

Instead, he continues to look where the stars would be if this were any place but Gotham.

 

_“I started wishing on the stars in the sky instead_  
I said to the sun  
tell me about the Big Bang  
The sun said, 'It hurts to become.'  
I carry that hurt on the tip of my tongue,  
and whisper 'Bless your heart' every chance I get  
So my family tree can be sure I have not left  
You do not have to leave to arrive,  
I am learning this slowly  
So sometimes, I look in the mirror  
and my eyes look like the holes  
in the shoes of the shoe-shine man”

           -Andrea Gibson - I Sing The Body Electric, Especially When My Power’s Out

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Any and all feedback is appreciated. ANY COMMENTS, KODOS, OR BOOKMARKS WOULD MAKE MY DAY!!  
> 2\. This actually isn't meant to be a Batfam-bashing fic. Every comic book reader needs to pick and choose what they consider canon, especially for Batman-associated stories which have been though thousands of writers over the better part of a century. But the label of abuse for Tim's situation would be a misnomer when held to scale with any of the other Batkids. I wanted to explore Tim's feelings of alienation and neglect in regards to both his family, and Harley would've been sure to capitalize on those feelings in order to both throw Tim off and project her own situation on someone with whom she shares a rapport. "Harley Quinn’s tortures were the haunting torments- the ones that wriggled underneath the mind and ate at you from behind." Harley and the Joker's relationship, in contrast, is unequivocally abuse.  
> 3\. Characterization is hard. Tim is Red Robin here, so he doesn't especially agree with Bruce or Bruce's methods but he still longs for Bruce's approval and attempts to emulate his mannerisms to an extent- which unfortunately include the repressed emotions. But he's still the dorky kid who loves photography and says shit like "I'm here for Sneaky Time," and "Cold as Mr. Freeze's sock drawer." Personally, I've won a few debate tournaments, but I still stumble every time I come out because. well. I get nervous, even if I know the other person is also lgbtq. My headcannon is that Tim first came out to Stephanie, and then Kon.  
> 4\. Harley's critique of Batman- that he's the same as any lawman who keeps things in stasis- is partly my opinion. The part that Harley doesn't know is that it's Bruce Wayne who drives progress in Gotham. So even as a vigilante works with cops to maintain order, Bruce funds organizations to create growth. Its a cool dichotomy.  
> 5\. I messed with the timeline something fierce, but, it could, theoretically be after the Red Robin One Shot in the Bruce Wayne Road Home arc. But then Duke's there? And Stephanie is still dead? IDK  
> 6\. These notes are hella long. Sorry about that


End file.
